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Samsung Billionaire Gets Off Easy (gizmodo.com)
Lee Jae-yong, the Samsung chief found guilty of bribery and embezzlement, was freed from prison after an appeals court reduced and suspended his five-year prison sentence. Gizmodo reports: Lee had pleaded not guilty to all charges and spent nearly a year in jail, CNN reported, before the appeals court reduced his sentence to two and a half years and suspended it for four. The court reportedly found him guilty of one bribery charge, but not of hiding money offshore. It also overturned another bribery charge. It's important to understand that Samsung has a tight grip on the country's economy. Known as a "chaebol," or a (usually family-owned) business conglomerate, Samsung contributes to a little over one-fifth of the country's exports. Its businesses make up about 15 percent of the country's total economy. It is extremely rare for leaders of the country's chaebols to be justly punished for their crimes --
most convicted are ultimately pardoned or granted a commutation. Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee, has been pardoned twice for similar charges.
to be above the law. It's good to be the king.
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Lee's father, Lee Kun-hee, has been pardoned twice for similar charges.
Being an American, I just shrug. We have the same "justice system" here. Poor people go to jail. Rich people don't. It's not right, but it's not news, either.
I don't respond to AC's.
Known as a "chaebol," or a (usually family-owned) business conglomerate
Sounds like the Japanese zaibatsu. The 'solution' was to replace them with keiretsu, which are essentially the same but with shareholders and a board of directors at top rather than dynastic ownership. The zaibatsu system was very popular back in the day, apparently.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
You're missing something important though. Ask yourself what all of those four rich people have in common and the answer is that their crimes were largely against other rich people. The aristocracy will always overlook the behavior of their peers towards the peasantry, but not the transgressions against their own. But even then the punishments are mild. No one was getting sent to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
Meanwhile Trump committed many, many instances of fraud against lower class people who fell for the Trump University scam. He wound up paying out over $25 million to settle lawsuits, but he did not go to jail.
Wells Fargo committed millions of acts of fraud against lower class people and nobody went to jail.
The subprime mortgage industry participated millions facts of fraud and nobody went to jail. In fact, the lower class tax payers were forced to bail them out to make sure they didn't even have to go bankrupt.
Funny how that works. Screw over poor people and maybe you pay a fine which is less than what you gained or maybe you get handed a bunch of money to keep you from going bankrupt. Screw over someone wealthy, however, and you go to jail.
According to the World Justice Project South Korea has about a equal a 'rule of law' as the USA.
US 18th, South Korea 19th.
UK 10th, France 21st for some context.
Filthy Scandi countries in their normal single digit positions :-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
New Zealanders are well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. One represents Australia, the other the rest of the world
If you don't like the fact that this guy was given clemency, then punish the corp. with your purchases. Buy someone else's stuff in stead. Stop relying upon some other government to punish corporate wrongdoing. If their profits drop, they will find out why, and then change their ways, or go under. "But that's not going to work, because people don't care enough about the lawfulness of corporations to actually change their buying decisions!" you say? Well, then it must not matter. So let it go. People are either smart enough to vote for the leaders who have their finger on the nuclear button, or they are not. They are either smart enough to vote with their dollars, or they are not. Make up your mind.